Beyond Giving: Supporting Policy Change for Remaking Nepal

Abstract

"At this critical juncture in Nepal's modern history, when the bloody Maoist insurgency has ended and a new constitution is being formulated, it is an appropriate time to deploy fresh initiatives in designing, implementing, and sustaining durable national progress on various fronts. Regardless of the quantum of development aid that will flow into the country for the next several years, a new future for Nepal requires Nepalis to take ownership of and drive national progress. Nowhere is this need for civic engagement in national progress more important than in public policy, with particular reference to the ongoing constitutional process and all that will flow from it in the coming years. To that end, this paper proposes the establishment of the Nepal Policy Foundation (NPF), a philanthropic enterprise in Nepal to fund grantmaking and other support activities for policy change. Although giving for a cause is elemental to Nepali society1, the decades of dependency on foreign aid have stultified the mobilization of indigenous resources expertise, and ideas. To rejuvenate Nepali participation in remaking Nepal, NPF grants will be used for specific research and related awareness raising, support to policy-focused Nepali organizations and individuals, and testing/proving of indigenous policy initiatives. NPF will require two phases of development over at least a decade: an establishment phase of two-three years and a consolidation phase of at least seven-eight more years. Drawing upon Nepali traditions of self-organization and problem solving, and using a deliberate approach of partnering with select Nepali non-profits, NPF will be a key, but hitherto missing, catalyst for informed Nepali ownership of and action for policy change."